Evaluation of the Impact of System-Wide Drug Testing in Multnomah County, Oregon, 1991-1992 (ICPSR 2589)

The Multnomah County Drug Testing and Evaluation (DTE)
program was established to help clients rid themselves of drug abusing
behavior. To that end, the DTE program provided random, weekly drug
tests to all clients in the program. These urinalysis tests allowed
DTE to monitor each client's compliance with release conditions and
progress in treatment programs, and to intervene appropriately when a
client showed signs of a drug abuse problem. The DTE program
supplemented drug testing w... (more info)

The Multnomah County Drug Testing and Evaluation (DTE)
program was established to help clients rid themselves of drug abusing
behavior. To that end, the DTE program provided random, weekly drug
tests to all clients in the program. These urinalysis tests allowed
DTE to monitor each client's compliance with release conditions and
progress in treatment programs, and to intervene appropriately when a
client showed signs of a drug abuse problem. The DTE program
supplemented drug testing with client drug evaluations and treatment
recommendations, which were provided to the client's probation officer
or case manager. This study was a program evaluation of two of DTE's
divisions: the Pretrial Release Supervision Program (PRSP) and the
probation and parole program. The pretrial division was chosen because
it was the first opportunity for the criminal justice system to
supervise and control the drug use of potential DTE clients. The
probation and parole program was selected for three reasons: it was
the largest component of the DTE program, it linked the pretrial and
post-sentence DTE programs, and the experience of this program could
be readily applied to the development of other such programs in other
jurisdictions. The programs were evaluated using administrative data
collected by corrections technicians, case managers, probation and
parole officers, and the DTE central office. Part 1 (Pretrial Data)
variables include dates of entry into and exit from the program,
number of drug tests, number of positive tests for various drugs, type
of offense and arrest date for each offense, and need assessment
rating for medical, employment, legal, family, psychological, and drug
addiction problems. Part 2 (Probation and Parole Data) variables
include a probation or parole indicator, prior drug arrests, prior
non-drug arrests, prior convictions, technical violations, drug use,
and new drug crimes committed during the program. Demographic
variables for both files include age, race, and gender.

Universe:
All offenders eligible for inclusion in the pretrial or
probation and parole Drug Testing and Evaluation (DTE) programs in
Multnomah County, Oregon from January 1991 through October 1992.

Data Types:
administrative records data

Methodology

Study Purpose:
The Multnomah County Drug Testing and Evaluation
(DTE) program was intended to help clients rid themselves of drug
abusing behavior. To that end, the DTE program provided random, weekly
drug tests to all clients in the program. These drug tests allowed DTE
to monitor each client's compliance with release conditions and
progress in treatment programs, and to intervene appropriately when a
client showed signs of a drug abuse problem. The DTE program
supplemented drug testing with client drug evaluations and treatment
recommendations, which were provided to the client's probation officer
or case manager. This study was a program evaluation of two of DTE's
divisions: the Pretrial Release Supervision Program (PRSP) and the
probation and parole program. The process evaluation considered seven
distinct components of each program: (1) recruitment of clients, (2)
drug testing of clients, (3) adjunct client processing, (4)
sanctioning and rewarding of clients, (5) client termination or
continuation, (6) data communication, storage, and recording among
program participants, and (7) linkage of the program to other DTE
programs.

Study Design:
This study was a process evaluation of two of
DTE's divisions: the Pretrial Release Supervision Program (PRSP) and
the probation and parole program. The pretrial division was chosen
because it was the first opportunity the criminal justice system had
to supervise and control the drug use of potential DTE clients. The
probation and parole program was selected for three reasons: it was
the largest component of the DTE program, it linked the pretrial and
post-sentence DTE programs, and the experience of this program could
be readily applied to the development of other such programs in other
jurisdictions. The programs were evaluated using administrative data
collected by corrections technicians, case managers, probation and
parole officers, and the DTE central office.

Sample:
Offenders were assigned to treatment or control groups by
case managers.

Data Source:

administrative records

Description of Variables:
Part 1 (Pretrial Data) variables include dates of
entry into and exit from the program, number of drug tests, number of
positive tests for various drugs, type of offense and arrest date for
each offense, and need assessment rating for medical, employment,
legal, family, psychological, and drug addiction problems. Part 2
(Probation and Parole Data) variables include a probation or parole
indicator, prior drug arrests, prior non-drug arrests, prior
convictions, technical violations, drug use, and new drug crimes
committed during the program. Demographic variables for both files
include age, race, and gender.

Response Rates:
Not applicable

Presence of Common Scales:
None

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2000-10-27

Version History:

2006-03-30 File CB2589.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.